The Virgin Suicides

Behind the manicured hedges of upper middle class suburbia live many secrets - and The Virgin Suicides has five of them.

Sofia Coppola’s debut feature is dreamy and mysterious but holds a precise mirror to the uncomfortable world of teenage emotional discovery. For the teenagers here it’s not quite sexual - it’s just curiosity and that makes the connections very pure.

Coppola inserts some lovely stylistic flourishes into the beguiling tale of teenage disconnection but it’s the all-round innocence of the cast and the strange uncomfortable dance between sexes that Coppola engineers which makes the film shine.

With high-end production values, excellent performances from the young cast throughout, great attention to art direction detail and not in the least a brilliant soundtrack The Virgin Suicides marked an impressive debut for a filmmaker who has since produced Oscar winning and enormously successful works.